Referral to Hospital by your GP
Having visited your GP, you maybe referred to hospital for further investigations and treatment. Once your referral has been received you will then be added to the hospital’s Outpatient Waiting List.
In order to ensure your visit to hospital can be facilitated please note the following:
- When you attend your G.P. please give them details of all unavailability and if you would require an interpreter to be in attendance at your appointment
- Please ensure that all contact information is up to date
- Your GP will then send an electronic referral to the hospital within your catchment area
- Referral is then processed by the Hospital
- You should be normally be appointed within 12 weeks, this maybe sooner if your Doctor has classed your referral as urgent – Please do not contact the Practice before this time to check on the progress of your referral
- You can if you wish contact the Hospital Department directly that you have been referred to, if you have any concerns
- If you still have any questions about your referral then please contact the Practice
What you can expect
When offering you an appointment, the hospital will:
- give you a minimum of 7 days notice of an offer of appointment
- inform you of the consequences of refusing a reasonable offer
- send notice of appointments by letter at least 14 days before the appointment and in a format appropriate to your needs
- tell you how long the appointment will last prior to attending
- ensure that if the Hospital breaches the Treatment Time Guarantee, you are offered the next available appointment and an explanation given as to why the guarantee was breached
- ensure that any additional needs are taken into account and support is in place when offering an appointment
- explain to you that it might not always be possible for you to be seen and treated locally and provide details of possible locations
- advise you as early as possible if you will need to travel for treatment
- If you require transport for the upcoming appointment, please phone one week in advance. Please access the patient transport to arrange this. You will be asked a series of questions about your mobility, this is to assess if you are eligible for ambulance transport.
I want to check the progress of my referral
If you have any questions about hospital appointments or are looking for the results of a test done at hospital, then please phone the appropriate secretary directly.
Hospital information / appointments are not always shared on to our computer system and we only get results from hospital tests that we have directly requested.
Referral management service
The Referral Management Service (RMS) is based at University Hospital Crosshouse, and is responsible for booking outpatient clinic appointments for a range of specialties and locations.
When patients contact the service – whether it is to confirm, change or cancel an appointment – we will aim to answer all calls as quickly as possible. However, at times when staff are particularly busy dealing with calls, callers will be placed in a queue and will be answered as soon as a member of staff becomes available. We will let you know where you are in the queue. You can also request a call back if the line is busy, and you can’t wait for your call to be answered.
When calling the service, please make sure that you have your appointment letter to hand, as we will ask for your name, date of birth, contact telephone number and your Community Health Index (CHI) number. Your CHI number can be found under the date of your letter. By having these details to hand, we can manage your call quickly and effectively.
The contact details for the Referral Management Service can be found on all outpatient appointment letters. If you need to contact the service, call 01563 827070.
Callers should note that all calls made to and from the Referral Management Service may be recorded for training or monitoring purposes. If you do not wish your call to be recorded, please let the member of staff who is dealing with your call know.